“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14: 6, NKJV). Within the above verse lays the vitality and power of the Gospel. Jesus Christ is THE way to heaven.

As I've noted in earlier columns, this is an unpopular assertion in the present age that embraces all 'truth' as equal. But as Christians, we must continue to fearlessly and compassionately integrate the Gospel of Christ in all that we do.
You see, Jesus asserted that He was the only way to heaven. If we preach or teach otherwise, we are saying that He is as a liar. Further, if we believe that the Bible is the infallible and inerrant Word of God, we must take Jesus at His Word. This is the basis of our faith.

Earlier this week at its annual meeting in Indianapolis, more than 7,000 messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention were called to impact 'the lostness that remains' in our world.

'That lostness,' said International Mission Board (IMB) president Jerry Rankin, 'is massive.'

Indeed it is. And Christians must resolve not to weaken the message of Christ as we fulfill His call to make disciples throughout the world (Matthew 28:19-20).
Rankin urged Southern Baptists to 'go tell the world love has come' by proclaiming 'the story of Jesus' to everyone.

The problem is this: despite growing numbers of missionaries, the IMB reports that millions still have not heard the Gospel. In fact, as of last October, there are more than 2,000 unreached people groups with populations greater than 100,000, the IMB has reported.

This brings to mind two pertinent verses of Scripture in which the Apostle Paul asks four key questions of Christians. First, Paul declares, 'For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

And then he asks: 'How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent' (Romans 10:14-15)?

These verses remain pertinent today, especially when one considers the '10/40 Window,' the geographic region within the 10th and 40th parallel — encompassing parts of North Africa and the Middle East, Korea and Japan — that represents the largest part of the world that is largely unreached with the Gospel.

In our own nation, growing numbers of our fellow citizens have no idea who Jesus is or their need to trust Him as their Savior. Dr. Dave Early, faculty member at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and director of the Liberty Center for Church Planting, has written an eye-opening report titled, 'The Desperate Need for New Churches,' that I encourage everyone to read (www.liberty.edu/academics/religion/seminary/index.cfm?PID=11611 ).
Indeed, the situation has not changed since Jesus told the Disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest' (Matthew 9:37-38).
The bottom line is that we are all ambassadors of Christ. We must resolve to speak to people about the condition of their soul and how Jesus is calling them to follow Him. (I know this is often tough, but Jesus Christ will give us boldness of spirit and power in our words when we trust Him to bless our efforts to speak out for Him.)

We must also be sacrificially supporting missionaries who are taking the Gospel to people who may otherwise never hear the Gospel story.

Finally, we must never forget what Jesus has done for us. He willingly gave His life on the cross, was buried in a tomb and rose again after three days. He did this to pay the price for the sins of every man, woman, boy, and girl who has ever lived.

Jesus did this for us because of God's love for us. This must be the focus of our lives.

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